Ouya CEO claims games sales are ‘better than we expected’

With the Android based Ouya console having hit retailers in recent weeks, the company’s CEO has refuted reports of low sales figures stating the gamer is doing “better than we expected.”

With many criticising Ouya’s lack of exclusive content and big name games, reports earlier this week claimed that early adopters were ignoring Ouya’s paid for content, instead sticking to the collection of free titles which are currently on offer.

Refuting these claims, Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman stated “Monetization on Ouya is so far better than we expected.” Speaking with The Verge, she added: "It takes time to build what traditional consoles have had decades to build. But really, I think it's too early to draw such broad sweeping statements about how a platform is going to perform."

Developers are said to have criticised Ouya for its lack of potential profits, with Uhrman failing to deny reports that the most profitable Ouya game to date, TowerFall, has generated just $21,000 (£13,651) in sales. The second highest selling game – Hidden in Plain Sight – has sold just 1,900 digital copies.

"These numbers will grow." Uhrman said. "To say developers can't make money on Ouya — I take offense to that.”

She added: "I'm sure the creators of TowerFall and Hidden in Plain Sight would take offense to that. The console has only been out for a month, and developers have only had access to the hardware for about 6 months. We really like what we see so far, and so do developers and gamers.

"These numbers will grow as more gamers pick up consoles, and as we attract more developers, and I believe that by the end of the year, we'll see a few developers telling us they've made more than a million dollars on Ouya.

"If every company that got mixed results right out of the gate would have given up, we wouldn't have an iPhone, we wouldn't have an iPod."